This is the post I wrote on March 2nd 2010 to announce I was stopping nearly 3 years of daily blogging. But I then briefly took up blogging again in the fall of 2010 in the run-up to the midterms, so this ended up buried under a dozen new posts. I am bumping it up to the top to give Campaign Diaries some closure.

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Dear readers,

I launched Campaign Diaries more in the summer of 2007, and since then I don’t believe I took more than half-a-dozen full days of break (at least if we leave out a brief period this past summer where I was attending to personal obligations). What a roller-coaster it has been: I started in the days Hillary Clinton looked like the invincible presidential front-runner, worked through the endless Democratic primaries, innumerable debates and convention speeches, covered Barack Obama’s triumphant victory and chronicled the rising signs of a red wave in the 2010 midterms. All of it has added up to more than 2100 (often very) lengthy posts.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end, and I regret to say that the time has come for me to halt regular blogging.

While I have enjoyed every minute I have spent writing, I am sure I don’t need to tell you how all-consuming an endeavor all of this is. I have been trying moving on to new activities that need my attention and it has become increasingly difficult to balance them with the sustained focus blogging requires. I no longer have it in me to pull the sleepless nights necessary to get it all done. While I am obviously tempted to continue through November, the volume of stories that will demand urgent attention will only grow by the day from now on. I also doubt scaling back the amount of writing is an option, since it would not take care of my desire to spend hours covering the latest events, especially as we get closer to Election Day.

I certainly do no intend to shut the site down for good. Since this is a great plateform for any writing I want to do, I’ll hopefully periodically put up analyses like yesterday’s breakdown of the House’s health-care vote, last month’s breakdown of Harold Ford’s voting record and any issue that I think is undercovered and requires my intervention.

That does not amount to regular blogging and news coverage of the type I’ve been doing here, of course. I realize I am leaving you Campaign Diaries-less at a key political moment, but I’ll at least try to maintain Twitter activity (my handle: @taniel). Another thing I am considering is starting a weekly post of Senate/House/Gov rating changes (once I am done with a two week break); this would at least give me the opportunity to cover some ground while also giving my take on how the landscape is changing, but I am not sure whether this would be satisfying to me or to you readers.

I have left the most important for the end: Thank you to all those who read this blog, to all those who generously think I have interesting things to say and to all those who have in any way contributed to making me keep it on far longer than I envisioned when I created it.

Thank you especially to all my faithful commenters, especially Jaxx Raxxor, Guy, MSW, Nathan, Cliff, Cicero, Maurice, Panos,, Ogre Mage, fritz, Gerard, Patrician, Scott, Joe from NC, kewgardens, Ron, Daniel, Earnest Dodge, Mr Rational, drg3750, Chicago Joe, TJ and all the other prolific writers who made this website a community with many familiar faces I enjoyed interacting with, and a forum with in-depth and long-running discussions. I hope we will have the opportunity to interact in the future, perhaps when I figure out that I cannot live without daily blogging and come begging for all of you to take me back!

I wish you waited until November before this, but I understand how difficult it can be to blog day to day while keeping another day job.

Good luck in your endeavors. If you can’t do this day to day, then a weekly post of the week’s political news could be good. Don’t know if you need to update House and Senate rating, I think general political news (retirements, primary challanges, major legislation etc.) would be better.

Also there is only one x the last name of my online nom de guerre I use Jaxx Raxor,Jaxx Bax Raxor or just Jaxx for my online presence, primarily for video games but also for other online stuff such as blogs (Politics and Video games are my major interests)..

One thing I like about this blog is that it is fairly small so the comments sections don’t tend to be super littered, and not alot of grief.

I also appreciate Cliff for his different viewpoints, especially since most political blogs are overwhelmingly liberal.

This is a blog I check every day because it is so thoroughly researched and well written. I’ve asked myself numerous times how one person has time to delve so deeply into political activities all across the country.

This is the first time I am adding a comment on any blog. I am doing this, just to make sure you get to know this …”There are many silent followers of your blog like me”. I got to know about your blog through “Washington Post Fix” comments section in 2007 and have been reading your blogs almost every day. What I liked best about your posts - they are the best short / simple / focused analysis (also would add non-biased …..) of the particular days political events(and poll numbers).

Thank you for all your hard work and I wish you the best in everything you do.

And yes, I will keep visiting this blog to read what you gotta say - whenever you get time to post that is….

Thank you for all the work you have done. This was one of my absolute favorite blogs, and a must-read. And, while trying to not be selfish, I would appreciate the occasional race ratings change. Maybe a slimmed down version of Cillizza’s Friday Line.

Thanks for your prolific and insightful blog. You will certainly be missed. There are very few sites I go to religiously, but yours has been one of the few. I echo the comments of another writer who noted that you have MANY silent fans. All the best to you in your future endeavors. Look forward to your future postings.

We’ll miss you! Please come back! I am a lurker but I’ve really enjoyed reading your analyses and ratings; it’s been one of the most impressive political website I read and it’s a shame you don’t get more credit for it! Thanks Taniel!

This has been one of the two sites that I check every day (or more) for the last two years, and the only blog that has ever rivaled yours is Political Base, which shut down a little after I started reading CDs.

Thanks for all the work, and CDs won’t be leaving my favorites bar for quite some time.

I’ve been wanting to email you for a while about the great job you do with your posts. This is a blog that I check often because it’s so thoroughly researched and very well written. I’ll miss your daily posts but I’ll check back for the weekly ones.

I have to tell you that your political analysis has made Campaign Diaries a daily part of my on-line reading for the past few years. Your work always reflects a keen grasp of the issues and I only hope you will continue to contribute to the political discourse for many years to come. Thank you for your careful and thoughtful writing. You will be sorely missed.

Taniel:
I too will miss your daily detailed analysis of the never ending political wars between Democrats & Republicans. You always strived to give a fare & balanced reading of what was occurring on every political front.
I will also miss the discussions in the comment section which nearly always was sharp and informative without the proliferation of trolls (both left & right) that plague most political blogs.
I too will keep checking this page & your twitter site to read whatever analysis you care to submit; even at 140 characters.
Thanks again for two years of great reading and discussion.
Fritz

I don`t log on for a few days and this happens! You will be missed as I throuougly enjoyed the informative and well written blog entries. I will check back regularly to see what you have added - good luck with your future plans.

From another silent reader, best of luck on your new path. I will miss your leftward leaning “rose colored glasses” view of our political spectrum. A sudden need to address other pursuits is quite Palinesque and I wish you well. The bookmark remains and I will check in.

Yours was one of the best political analysis sites on the web. I’m very sorry to see it go. I hope that you will write updates when something of great significance happens in the political world. I for one would appreciate a semi-regular update of House/Senate/Governor rankings and analysis.

Some things don`t change with Cliff making partisan comments to the end. Massa has health and ethics issues, wow big deal. Get over it.

Yah. And Mark Foley resigned because he was an alcoholic.

It’s partisan to note that Massa retired under very weird circumstances? Actually no, the only partisan thing going on here is you not noticing the obvious because Massa is a Democrat. It doesn’t take a genius.

Thanks for the incredibly awesome insights over these past few years. I know how hard it is to put together thoughtful, intelligent writings, and you crank them out all the day long. I’ve been enjoying this site and it is so great that we can all discuss and dialog without the trite inane silliness that has taken over some of the other political blogs. Everyone seems to bring a different insight here and that keeps it interesting for all of us. You can count me among those that check in throughout the day

I highly concur with Nathan that we do a group effort and keep the blog going. I’d be very happy to take a leading role in this effort. This year in politics is just getting more and more “unusual” all the time. It isn’t so much the individual different political occurrences as it is the number of occurrences that are mind boggling.

I fully respect Taniel’s decision to part ways with this blog. I’ve been disappointed some of these parting comments, specifically Wade’s comment about Taniel wearing “rose colored glasses” comment. We all wear “rose colored glasses”, sans Jim Lehrer. Cliff’s comment about Massa doesn’t bother me at all. Like Cliff, I’d love to read Taniel’s insight on what he thought had happened. Taniel’s diaries were presented in a fair manner, and he respected our various opinions regarding his diaries. It’s too bad that we can’t just agree to disagree, or disagree “agreably”.

MSW, I completely agree with you that some people spoilt the goodbye (well not a full goodby since Taniel has siad he will be back). Taniel has done good work and should be congratulated for it.
Just a shame that the two occurences of making partisan comments came from the right. Beiong fair and balanced does mean that it should be one violation from the left and one from the right reported. Just fact.

Cliff, you must have ASSUMED that I was talking about Foley raping boys! I NEVER said FOLEY. GOTCHA Troll! I pulled one of your favorite tricks: making inferences about something and then denying the fact.

You were making a comment in reference to “my” mentioning of Foley. The inference was clear and no reasonable person would doubt that’s what you were saying.

The difference between me and you is that my inferences make sense and are reasonable while yours are either clearly idiotic or at best are gigantic stretches. Assuming you were talking about Foley (you were and you knew it) was reasonable. Your inferences, like, say, I’m a Republican therefore I must agree with everything any Republican says ever, are significantly less reasonable.

“You were making a comment in reference to “my” mentioning of Foley. The inference was clear and no reasonable person would doubt that’s what you were saying.”

Wrong. Good try Troll. You got beat at your stupid game. That’s the purpose of this exercise: to disclose you for the tool that you are. Good riddance. Have fun at Redstate when you discuss your parties woes for not winning congress back.

I’ll miss your blogging… just when California was heating up, too! Calbuzz just posted exactly how much eMeg’s been spending in California on tv ads and it confirmed my first hand feeling of being bukkake’d in advertising. Oh QueenMeg I will never tire of your voice! Beam it into my head 24/7!

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